Dewhurst is tough guy, tough conservative, in Senate race

AUSTIN — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the wealthy businessman whose demeanor usually tends toward the genteel, is taking off the gloves as he fights Ted Cruz's efforts to paint him as a moderate, conciliatory, timid, milquetoast (shall we continue?) politician.

“I'm a veteran. I served abroad in the CIA. ... You don't think I'm a fighter? Everybody else is in diapers compared to me,” Dewhurst said on Matt Patrick's Houston radio show last week. “I have fought for my country. I'll continue to fight for my country. And there is no one in this race that is as conservative.”

As for Cruz's efforts to convince people that Dewhurst once supported a state income tax: “The only thing I've ever said is that we'll see a state income tax over my dead, cold political body.”

Dewhurst's defense came a bit at the expense of Gov. Rick Perry — whom, he notes, no one calls moderate. “Don't you realize that I have the same record as Rick Perry? I made his record,” Dewhurst said. “In other words, he signed what I passed, and of course the speaker (passed) too, but he signed what I passed.”

Dewhurst seemed to take pride in the fact that a GOP redistricting push in 2003 prompted Democratic senators to flee to Albuquerque, N.M., saying, “I try and be a very, very nice guy — but let me tell you, I have had to shut down the Democrats in our Texas Senate.”

Dewhurst has been sharp before, and occasionally peeved — who can forget him comparing former House Speaker Tom Craddick's negotiating tactics to those of an “Iranian cab driver”? — but his campaign demeanor may puzzle supporters who've seen him as not only a conservative but a pragmatist looking for solutions as leader of a chamber in which Democrats have a voice.

Some think the campaign persona won't serve him well as he tries to avoid a runoff in the race for a U.S. Senate seat in which Cruz, a national tea party favorite, is his closest competitor but former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert presents a less combative alternative.

“Leppert being there provides a ready vehicle for people who like the old David Dewhurst but don't like the campaign David Dewhurst,” said Mark Jones, political science professor at Rice University.

Vote for me, or ...

Finding the right campaign message is key — and no one knows it better than Rob Johnson, who managed Dewhurst's 2002 campaign, Perry's 2010 gubernatorial re-election and Perry's presidential run. Johnson, who now heads a pro-Dewhurst super PAC, got some early experience in messaging while at Southern Methodist University, when he ran a winning race for 1996 student body president with this slogan: “Vote for Rob — or he'll lose.”

Did he ever consider adjusting this slogan for Perry or Dewhurst? Um, no, he said: “These are proven conservatives with proven records. We were able to run on their records.”

Dewhurst's résumé gap

As my colleague Gary Scharrer reported on our Texas Politics blog, Dewhurst's résumé omits his job as human resources coordinator with Democratic Gov. Dolph Briscoe in the mid-1970s. Dewhurst worked for Briscoe for less than a year, said a former staffer, so the decision was made to omit the job when putting together his résumé for his 1998 run for land commissioner. Read more — including Dewhurst's reaction when a Democratic former lawmaker asked him about the matter — on our blog.

Peggy Fikac is Austin bureau chief and columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, delving into politics and policy in areas including the state budget, where the intersection of the two is compelling.

She covers Gov. Greg Abbott, who won the state’s top seat after a nationally noticed campaign against Wendy Davis; dug into Ted Cruz’s ascent to the U.S. Senate; covered George W. Bush as governor and during his races for president; and has bird-dogged Rick Perry’s tenure as Texas’ longest-serving governor, his White House ambitions and his indictment.

Peggy was bureau chief for the Houston Chronicle as well as the Express-News for more than five years when the two combined their Austin operations.

She previously worked for the Associated Press, where she covered the late Ann Richards during both of her campaigns for governor and specialized in public education and legislative coverage. Peggy also has been the correspondent for three Rio Grande Valley newspapers, starting as a senior at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.